kozard,
You aren't the first person to measure the stock board. I keep trying to make sure people know IMHO it really needs to be modded to useable. That said, some people have said its fine as-is, others have said its not too bad. I guess there must be more variation in human perception than intuition suggests.
EDIT: Board performance can be fixed pretty well, but I keep trying to tell people its a LOT of work to do it. IME all of the individual measured distortion spurs can get down to or below -120dBFS. IMHO to get all spurs down at or below -130dBFS would require staring over with at least a 4-layer PCB. Other things can be improved too.
You aren't the first person to measure the stock board. I keep trying to make sure people know IMHO it really needs to be modded to useable. That said, some people have said its fine as-is, others have said its not too bad. I guess there must be more variation in human perception than intuition suggests.
EDIT: Board performance can be fixed pretty well, but I keep trying to tell people its a LOT of work to do it. IME all of the individual measured distortion spurs can get down to or below -120dBFS. IMHO to get all spurs down at or below -130dBFS would require staring over with at least a 4-layer PCB. Other things can be improved too.
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So does anyone have public/shared/orderable gerber files for a well done DIY ES9038Q2M board? Maybe I can transfer the ES9038Q2M chip?
Any chance you know which post has measurements attached?
I have tried several searches but I guess I am not very good at finding it on this thread.
Are you planning on making the gerber files available for the DIY community?
Are you using the ES9038Q2M QFN?
Or it is not possible due to the instrumentation application perspective?
this kit for ES9028pro (not included) + quality parts purchased elsewhere will fully satisfy your DIY needs.
ES9028 ES9028PRO /ES9018 ES9018S Q8 HiFi Audio DAC Decoder DIY KIT | eBay
or you can buy any decent DAC and go straight to the listening
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eziitis,
What was your total cost for everything by the time you finished the project?
EDIT: Regarding 'any decent dac,' seems to me different people have different ideas about what constitutes 'decent.' The ones in my laptop and cell phone are both useable, with the cell phone probably being a little better. However, I wouldn't prefer to have either one in my hi-fi.
What was your total cost for everything by the time you finished the project?
EDIT: Regarding 'any decent dac,' seems to me different people have different ideas about what constitutes 'decent.' The ones in my laptop and cell phone are both useable, with the cell phone probably being a little better. However, I wouldn't prefer to have either one in my hi-fi.
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That "etc." is what you need to look into. For example, placebo effect, room mode and expectation bias. Audible DAC jitter is a thing of the past and no need to worry anymore these days. Only the shills and salesman still bring this up.
If you compare DACs in subjective way (opposite of what I outlined on post #6590), the results are all over the place. You can listen to the same DAC in such way and perceive a difference. Think about that.
No, using ES9038PRO dual. I will eventually make everything available for free, but bear in mind this is not intended for a standard XMOS or Amanero audio interface. Don't hold your breath, it's a very slow process, ADC is done, DAC boards (first version) are about to be sent to JLCPCB (after the Chinese New Year). Right now the boards have slave I2S interfaces, not sure yet how to interface with the target PC running the measurement software.
Have it your way then. No hard feelings I hope. I'm afraid i don't have time for this right now. My mum has just this minute found out she has COVID.
John
Hi, did some DPLL test again..
Must say that sound is way much better with settings to 1 than default 5.
USB works fine with 1, but still problems with optical.
Can’t still with optical get lock with default 5, but 9 works.
But if i ignore the click and half a second mute every 6 seconds the sound is just fine with optical with DPLL at 1
Anyone have some ideas if some register that can fix a lock problem? Lock speed? Igonre valid flag?
BR // Daniel
Must say that sound is way much better with settings to 1 than default 5.
USB works fine with 1, but still problems with optical.
Can’t still with optical get lock with default 5, but 9 works.
But if i ignore the click and half a second mute every 6 seconds the sound is just fine with optical with DPLL at 1
Anyone have some ideas if some register that can fix a lock problem? Lock speed? Igonre valid flag?
BR // Daniel
Kozard,
Trying to remember who posted that measurement result. It will probably come to me eventually.
Daniel,
The problem is most likely jitter from your source and or your optical cable. Can't fix that in the dac without going to a FIFO or maybe a better ASRC in the dac design. FIFO is best quality but has a time delay. ES9038Q2M has in internal ASRC, but there are better ones that can be implemented externally. SRC4392 is one very good one. So is AK4137 but those aren't available right now. Iancanada has a presence at diyaudio and sells a pretty good FIFO, adds to cost though.
Trying to remember who posted that measurement result. It will probably come to me eventually.
Daniel,
The problem is most likely jitter from your source and or your optical cable. Can't fix that in the dac without going to a FIFO or maybe a better ASRC in the dac design. FIFO is best quality but has a time delay. ES9038Q2M has in internal ASRC, but there are better ones that can be implemented externally. SRC4392 is one very good one. So is AK4137 but those aren't available right now. Iancanada has a presence at diyaudio and sells a pretty good FIFO, adds to cost though.
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2.5 years ago:
ES9038Q2M Board
and the mods:
ES9038Q2M Board
AVCC = Vref(TL431)-LPF(10K/100uF)-ErrAmp(5532)-PassTr(BD139)
I/V=OP1622 implemented like Vicnic proposed: Chinese ES9018K2M I2S DAC
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Thank you for the old measurements.
They don't look like my spectrum with the huge 200Hz & 15.6kHz spikes/spurs. No sign of that mess in your spectrum.
So I wonder if I have a defective board or ES9038Q2M chip?
They don't look like my spectrum with the huge 200Hz & 15.6kHz spikes/spurs. No sign of that mess in your spectrum.
So I wonder if I have a defective board or ES9038Q2M chip?
Attachments
Perhaps this is a good (and much better priced) Ti ultra low noise regulator?
"LDO Voltage Regulators 300-mA, ultra-low-noise, low-IQ, low-dropout (LDO) linear regulator with high PSRR"
$0.35 each quantity 10 at Mouser.
https://www.ti.com/store/ti/en/p/product/?p=TPS7A2033PDBVR
"LDO Voltage Regulators 300-mA, ultra-low-noise, low-IQ, low-dropout (LDO) linear regulator with high PSRR"
$0.35 each quantity 10 at Mouser.
https://www.ti.com/store/ti/en/p/product/?p=TPS7A2033PDBVR
Right. I went back and read over some of the old posts from a couple of years ago. We were trying to find a way to make a good sounding, low-cost dac. There were not any on the market at that time that we felt were good enough, while also low enough cost. What I found out in the end appears to be about what you found out, which is to get a dac we thought was good enough for what we wanted it wasn't low-cost as we had hoped. 300€ or so for you, probably mine ended up higher by the time a lot of different variations were tried (but I only did one like that). So, today I say there are pretty good dacs one can buy starting around $250 or so, but to get a really good one which I would like then someone should expect it to be expensive. That's just the reality for the class of dacs I like. Yet, I know there are people that are perfectly happy with an un-modded ES9038Q2M board like we started out with in this thread. Problem is who has what preferences, when they ask what's a good dac?
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